Difference between revisions of "Chrono Compendium:About"

Revision as of 04:58, 4 July 2008

A photonic Compendium of all human knowledge

Mission Statement

The Chrono Compendium's reason for being is twofold. Firstly, it aims to archive and catalogue all existing knowledge and plausible speculation of the Chrono series, whether this knowledge is textual, auditory, or visual. Secondly, the Compendium wishes to create new content, and foster the growth and development of the Chrono series and its fan community.

Staff profiles are here.

History

The Chrono Compendium was created by ZeaLitY, Ramsus, Ybrik Metaknight, Radical_Dreamer, and a few others in July of 2003. It evolved out of a 50-page thread on Overclocked ReMix in which much spontaneous analysis and discussion of the games took place. ZeaLitY had originally created the thread to show off a map of Enhasa; as more posters became involved, the founders of the site began to understand the depth of the Chrono series and a need for organizing information. ZeaLitY began the Chronology FAQ to house initial discussion on Chrono Trigger, originally believing that analysis could fit in a small appendix. The posters then began to discuss Chrono Cross, and decided that the discussion and findings should be preserved, and that the Chrono series should be illuminated in full. The name 'Compendium' was chosen in part due to the influence of the film adaptation of H.G. Wells's Time Machine; in the libraries of the future, several orbs existed with human interfaces that served as repositories for all human knowledge.

ZeaLitY has received questions dealing with why he created the site. Aside from the statement above, his personal reasons include:

1. To present new analysis and findings to illuminate the fullness of the series, since most sites and fans only scratched the surface;

2. To create a complete resource for the indulgence in the rich world of the series, and to create new content and maintain the community;

3. To preserve the legacy of the series, eternally updated and maintained.

Before this Chrono Compendium was created, a small ezBoard featured the name. You can find an archive of the forum here.

Prototype designs for current layout:

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  Beta

Game Policy

The Chrono Compendium embraces each game of the Chrono series, treating them as equals. The policy of the site is to welcome the Chrono series mythos as a whole, and examine it as a unified series. We do not endorse one game as better than the other, and neither do we exclude Radical Dreamers. Each game contributes to the canon of the series, and through our analysis, we have found that the plot and mechanics of the Chrono series are incredibly consistent and harmonious. It is thus our stance to take everything together, using the games and statements by Masato Kato (series creator) as canon in describing and discussing the series.

Comprehensive Schedule

The Chrono Compendium aims to accomplish many goals; several imagined at the site's incarnation have already been fulfilled, and the sky's the limit. Listed below are strategic and imminent objectives, along with sustained programs.

Strategic Goals

1. Contact Masato Kato and ask for an interview or some kind of audience.
2. Find a reliable translator to complete works such as Missing Piece character details, Ultimania developer interviews, Dream Team interview in CT player's guide, etc. and establish rapport with Japanese Chrono community.
3. Complete the Chrono Compendium Music Archive.
4. Create a Prerelease comprehensive four-column script.

Completed Goals

1. Finish listing basic information in the Encyclopedia
2. Round out images and extra Encyclopedia features/organization (homogenize entries/music), create the Image Index
3 Finalize all current analysis:
3a. Go through every thread, summarize, present theories, and end discussion, culminating in the placement of information in the theory encyclopedia.
3b. Apply existing articles to theories, and update existing articles.
3c. Create new articles from all other available related material.
3d. Cross-examine with other sources.
4. Achieve a beautiful, nice layout and streamlined site design.
5. Confirm that the Compendium is the new, unquestionable center of the Chrono fan community
6. Revise the charter to reflect current status and think of staff positions.
7. Release the translated script of Chrono Trigger upon its completion.

Compendium Projects

• Chrono Break Initiative

In professional and logical ways, the Chrono Compendium aims to support the development of a new Chrono game, tentatively titled Chrono Break. See the Chrono Break Request Form if you are interested.

• Chrono Series Music Archive

The Chrono Series Music Archive project aims to create lossless sound files of all official Chrono series auditory releases. Why? Because we're perfectionist archivists!

• Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes

Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes is a gargantuan ROM hack intending to tell the story of a second adventure of Crono and the gang occurring between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.

• Chrono Compendium Creative Conniptions

Starting in 2007, the Chrono Compendium is having year-round contests for fan created works and special semi-annual events. The prizes aren't much, consisting of special ranks on the forums. Nonetheless, such a reason for expressing enjoyment for the series is as good as any, and the presence of constant creation will add an air of activity and vigor to the site. They include...

• • Dream Splash! -- Semi-annual event covering an expansive topic in the series and inviting an entire range of contributions.

• • Spring's Gift -- March, April, and May witness a fan art contest. The winner gets the title Artist of Termina.

• • Winter's Fragments -- December, January, and February see a simple fanfiction short story contest. Entries are judged on quality, theme, and closeness to recreating the Chrono feel (which...sounds a bit stupid and subjective, but you can guess what is meant). We take full advantage of the holiday season to compose works here. Winner will be the Poet of El Nido.

Initially, the contests were a three-month each full year program, but due to community size, these two were replaced with Dream Splash! events:

• • Summer's Cry -- June, July, and August will host a remixing contest. Winner is the Bard of Regiorra.

• • Autumn's Fate -- September, October, and November will play stage to a short ROM hacking contest. For instance, Zakyrus's blackjack game at the Millennial Fair would be a valid entry. Entries are judged upon technical difficulty and execution and general quality. Competent hacks with plots will be favored. The winner will be Architect of Kajar.

Completed Programs

• Chrono Compendium Encyclopedia Standardization

In late 2006, the Chrono Compendium Encyclopedia was audited and standardized concerning issues of layout and prose.

• Chrono Trigger Coliseum

The Chrono Trigger Coliseum is a ROM hack by jsondaq2 allowing players to compete in a coliseum with three modes of difficulty for prizes and surprises. The hack seamlessly connects with Chrono Trigger, allowing normal play of the game.

• Chrono Trigger Retranslation

The Chrono Compendium is using KWhazit's translation of Chrono Trigger to release a comprehensive script contrasting the English, Japanese, and retranslated English text of Chrono Trigger in an easily read and understood presentation.

• Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile

Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile is a gaiden ROM hack covering Magus's time in Zeal. Released in January 2008, it reflected the cutting edge of hacking for its time and encouraged new works to follow.

Imminent Goals

These are tasks ZeaLitY lists that he is working on completing or intends to finish soon. It is somewhat of a to-do list.

• Find a lossless rip of Hopeful Weeds.
• Create a Prerelease script
• Finish map list.
• Track down NPC and PC animations
• Quantify Radical Dreamers event and monster damage, and affection events
• Complete Radical Dreamers sprites, and rip sounds
• Analyze Ultimania again
• Analyze dimensional TTI
• Rip CTR art
• Add CT+ interview, PG interview, and CT Unglued 16 to Stories system
• VGMix X and other music additions
• Grab the Triple Triad cards
• Track down the missing VGMixes
• Material Requiring Translation
• Complete Aegis system implementation
• Finish directing the Compendium guide, including managing fan projects, handling submissions, announcing news
• What DS means
• Verify NG interviews
• Creative conniptions and ranks

Technical to-do list:

• Organize and recreate CE domain / QuestFan.
• Enable stats for the chronofan domain.
• Find & replace http://cc.herograw.org/ with http://chronofan.com/ in the forum SQL.
• Create a viewer for the old PHPNuke Compendium backup.

Chrono Compendium Charter

• This document provides a general outline of the Chrono Compendium as an organization. The charter is not intended to be a definitive resource and is subject to change as the site evolves. It was written by Ramsus, GrayLensman, and ZeaLitY.

• Old Charter

I. Declarations

1. The site will pursue the enrichment of the fan community through objectives outlined in its mission statement.
2. The site will not accept or forward Cease and Desist letters regarding fan projects mentioned on the site.
3. The site will not reveal the identity of any member without due process of law.
4. The site will not participate in affiliate programs of any sort save those conducted on the links page.
5. The site will not accept commercial advertising of any sort.
6. The site will not support fan petitions.¹
7. The site will not support the commercial endeavors of fans.

¹ - Some fans may be shocked at first with this proposal. After all, if we're fans of the series, why wouldn't we want another game by petioning? Fan petitions fail to spread a positive image of the fan community -- they are in fact detrimental. There are many ways to indicate interest in a new game, but "petitioning" to "demand" a new game, or a remake, makes us out to be a bunch of infantile, rabid fans biting at the heels of Square Enix. Worse yet, such fans are usually too picky to bite when they finally get what they want. We don't even know what negative connotations consumers petitioning would have when carried over in translation. So if you're in charge of such a fan petition project, don't ask the Compendium to help with your publicity. If you really want influence in the company, start buying shares.

II. Organizational Structure

a. Heirarchy

• General Members
  

All registered Chrono Compendium members belong to this group. General Members are able to post messages in all forums save administrative and private fan project boards.

• Creative Regents
  

Creative regents include members who have won an annual fan work contest and keep a special title for one year. These titles include Artist of Termina (art), Bard of Regiorra (music), Architect of Kajar (ROM hacking), Poet of El Nido (fiction).

• Creative Emerita
  

Creative emerita are members who have won an annual fan work contest in the past, but whose titles have passed on to new winners.

• Fan Project Leaders
  

Members leading or creating fan projects receive this designation, allowing them to post reasonable news directly to the Chrono Compendium news and updates page.

• Entities
  

Entities include the original founders of the Chrono Compendium who act as site administrators. Entities provide suggestions for the site's direction and manage the forums. Acting chief administrator is sometimes given the unofficial title Director.

• Gurus
  

Gurus are members of the Chrono Compendium recognized for outstanding individual contributions to analysis, the Chrono Compendium, and the popularity and enjoyment of the Chrono series on whole. Guru status is reserved for the highest possible achievements in individual fields; existing Gurus become emerita upon the promotion of new courts. For types of achievement, Life is reserved for creative, Time for analytical (both technical and plot), and Reason for leadership and activity.

Court I - Aitrus (Life), GrayLensman (Reason), warmgun (Time)
Court II - Aitrus (Life), GrayLensman (Reason), The_UnknownUser_ (Time)
Court III - Aitrus (Life), GrayLensman (Reason), Leebot (Time)
Court IV - Geiger (Life), GrayLensman (Reason), Leebot (Time)
Court V - KWhazit (Life), Chrono'99 (Reason), Leebot (Time)
Court VI - KWhazit (Life), Chrono'99 (Reason), FaustWolf (Time)
Court VII - Geiger (Life), Chrono'99 (Reason), FaustWolf (Time)

b. Registration

To post messages or submit content, you must become a Chrono Compendium member by registering for the Forum. This is for several reasons: 1.) To help control the content of the site and 2.) To identify the author of submissions. Only a valid E-mail address is required for registration. Only one membership is allowed per person to prevent confusion and abuse of the site.

c. Rank

Chrono Compendium members receive a rank based their post count which is displayed under their user name. The rank automatically displays a Chrono series image above one's avatar, and is meant only for fun enjoyment.

1. CC Reserve Corps (0)
2. New Member (+0)
3. Chrono Fan (+15)
4. Guardian (+50)
5. Acacia Dragoon (+100)
6. Zealian (+200)
7. Chronopolitan (+300)
8. Time Traveler (+400)
9. Temporal Warrior (+500)
10. Dimension Crosser (+600)
11. Magical Dreamer (+700)
12. Errare Explorer (+800)
13. Radical Dreamer (+900)
14. Zurvan Surfer (+1000)
15. Hero of Time (+1200)
16. Arbiter (+1500)
17. Nu (+2000)
18. Lavos (+3000)

III. Code of Conduct

• Chrono Compendium staff members

1. shall be fans of the entire Chrono series.
2. shall not attempt to use the site merely for personal aggrandizement.
3. shall not use the site in pursuit of any commercial endeavor.
4. shall not support fan petitions as a staff member of the site.
5. shall not defame other web sites in the Chrono community.

• Chrono Compendium members

1. shall treat all other members in a courteous and respectful manner.
2. shall not post or link to any material which may be found offensive by other members.
3. shall not post derogatory or insulting statements toward any other member or post comments intended to annoy or provoke other members.
4. shall respect the privacy of all other members.
5. shall not engage in any activities which disrupt the normal functioning of the website.
6. shall not create an user name intended to impersonate, mock, or antagonize another member or falsely claim to be another member.
7. shall not attempt to gain access, privileges, or abilities unintended by the design of the website or gain unauthorized access of the user account of another member.
8. shall endeavor to convey the highest possible level of truth and accuracy in every post or submission.
9. shall not knowingly submit any theories or statements which are false or erroneous nor modify any body of evidence to support such a claim.
10. shall not claim ownership of any work created by another person. If the work of another person is reproduced in whole or in part, full credit shall be given to the original author.
11. shall not post any illegal material, as well as anything that is self-incriminating or incriminates other members.

IV. Disciplinary Procedures

a. Moderation

Moderators may remove material found in violation of the code of conduct. Moderators may also move, edit or delete material to maintain the order of the site.

b. Penalties

Violators of the code of conduct will receive a warning and may have special privileges or titles revoked. Repeated and serious violations may result in members being suspended or banned from the site. Moderators are able to issue warnings, but an administrator is required to modify the account privileges of members.

c. Appeals

Members who find the actions of the moderators unfair or unwarranted may ask the administrators to reevaluate the decision, however the judgment of the administrators is final.

V. Site Index

a. News and Updates

Site updates, important news items and fan work releases are posted here by the administrators or fan project leaders.

b. Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia is the compilation of all factual information collected about the Chrono Series. Chrono Scholars are responsible for maintaining and updating the content of the encyclopedia.

c. Analysis

Analysis is a subset of the encyclopedia containing all reasonable analysis of the Chrono Series, including articles and individual theory pages.

d. Features

Features are any special presentations concerning the Chrono series, whether interviews with developers and fan project creators or editorials written by staff members.

e. Community

Community is an umbrella for all fan works. Fan art, fan fiction, game modification, other fan projects, and annual contests are presented under the Community header.

f. Quick Reference

Quick Reference is a table of several encyclopedia pages concerning the games that do not fit in other categories.

g. Discussion Forums

The message board is the center for discussion and debate and community for the Chrono Compendium. Categories are listed below.

• News and Updates
  

News and fan project news are posted within this forum for display on the News and Updates page.

• Site Discussion
  

Any discussion which does not belong in another forum or concerns the site is placed here. General, non analytic dialogue about the Chrono series takes place in Chrono / Gameplay; help requests and gameplay discussion also take place here, and all spoilers must be clearly marked in this forum. This category includes Kajar Laboratories, a central forum for discussing fan works.

• Fan Creation and Feedback
  

Authors may post unfinished works for comments and suggestions. Authors may also ask for help editing or proofing their work. All kinds of fan projects can be submitted, previewed and reviewed here as well.

• Chrono Series Analysis
  

This is the location of any discussion related the analysis of the Chrono Series. This entire forum category should be considered to contain spoilers.

• Fan Projects
  

Fan Projects in-progress or finished belong in this category, where team members and leaders can meet privately or publicly to work on a project or field criticism and feedback.

• Mt. Woe - Dead Fan Projects
  

Fan Projects abandoned by their teams exist here, open for public viewing according to the Compendium's doctrine of archival.

h. Links

Links include other Chrono sites or affiliates who agree to mutually link with us. The Chrono Compendium does not accept main page affiliation and will not display buttons for other sites on its pages.

VI. Directing the Chrono Compendium

• II. Fan Projects - Support, Promotion, and Archival

• New fan projects that ask for them should be given their own forums and member groups. Considerations in creating a forum include whether the forum should be public, in order to showcase progress, or private, in order to allow developers to work in secret; who the moderator will be; and what the title and synopsis of the forum shall be. Forums are listed in alphabetical order under the Fan Project forum category. However, completed fan projects automatically take precedence at the top, with FINISHED! added to their synopses at the beginning.

• Fan project teams should be interviewed either once or twice depending on the length of development. A long project should be interviewed perhaps one-quarter through completion, and both long and short projects should be interviewed to coincide with release using the Stories system. Interviews should cover major developers (all if possible) and feature a sidebar with content such as short Q&As, screenshots, a short FAQ, or other tiny insights into the development process.

• When a fan project is completed, its forum should be made public (unless against the will of the developers), moved to the top of the Fan Project forum category (alphabetized with other completed fan projects), and edited so that its synopsis begins with "FINISHED!" The fan project can be promoted in numerous ways, including a blurb on the News and Updates page sidebar, and posts on other Chrono series forums found at the Community Map.

• Completed ROM or BIN hacks should be submitted to ROMhacking.net. All completed fan game files should be uploaded in a ZIP or other archive to the Chronofan server under the Other folder and distributed from there, perhaps supported by other utilities such as Sendspace if chosen by the developers. Contrarily, translation projects or hacks should be uploaded to the Chronofan Translations folder. ROM and BIN hacks should optimally include a copy of a patching program and instructions on how to patch, if feasible. Games requiring RPGMaker runtimes should specifically state this in the readme, and releases should supply a link for those runtimes.

• Every July and December, Fan Projects and the Fan Projects forum category should be reviewed to identify dead or abandoned projects or other situations requiring action. Projects can be declared dead under two conditions: a) the project has not had any activity from developers for six months, and b) developers who are contacted do not respond or confirm that the project is dead. Dead project forums should be moved to the Mt. Woe category and opened to the public so that project assets can be recycled for future endeavors, if possible.

• Aegis System - Many modding communities are crippled because participants each try to put out their own project with little help; in the end, none of these myriad projects is completed in a timely fashion. Also, expert experience acquired in development is spread out and kept disintegrated in this fashion. In order to facilitate fan project quality and completion, the Chrono Compendium always supports one fan project with special infrastructure. The project is selected by a consensus of the Director, Entities, and Gurus. The selected Aegis fan project receives its own encyclopedia page containing a summary of the project, screenshots to attract interest, banners for visual spice, and a list of openings for help. The list should include various methods of contacting the development team. This page is advertised in four areas: with a roughly 150x50 button on the News and Updates sidebar, a sticky topic in Kajar Laboratories containing the same information as the page, a long, full-width but very thin clickable banner at the bottom of the site, and a link in the navigation bar.

• Appendix A. Functional Units

• News and Updates / Forums - The forums use Simple Machine Forums; their only real link to the site is as a back end for the News and Updates page. Articles posted in the News and Updates and Fan Project News forums will automatically appear on the front page. Also, any stickies in the News and Updates forum will appear on the sidebar of the News and Updates page. The most recently updated sticky will appear at the top.

• Stories - The Stories system outputs xml files, allowing for certain markup or design not enabled elsewhere on the site. Individual "Stories" are numbered folders with numbered xml files in them. Naming a file sidebar.xml will create a sidebar using that file for a particular Story.

• Chronofan - Chronofan.com is the main file server for the Chrono Compendium. It has a few main folders. Other houses utilities, hacks, fan projects, and other miscellaneous files. Publications houses textual documents such as scripts and guides. Stories houses images used in the Stories system when uploading them to the encyclopedia would take too long. Translations stores translation patches, and Video stores videos offered on the Download section and also serves as an archive for certain concert videos.

• Chrono Compendium Music Archive -

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